Bongeunsa Buddhist temple was founded in 794 during the United Shilla Dynasty, with a 23-metre tall Maitreya Buddha statue. We came across this temple while visiting Starfield COEX mall.
After crossing the traffic lights, we found ourselves in front of the first main entrance of the temple. This is called the One Pillar Gate. It is named after the fact that its pillars are lined up in one straight line, symbolizing that “all truths are oneness”. After having been away from Bongeunsa and passing through Sanasa in Yangpyeong and Seokguram in Obongsan for 35 years, it returned to its original place in May 2020!
After walking past the pillar gate, you come across the four Heavenly Kings. They are in charge of protecting the Buddha-Dharma and the temple compound in the four cardinal directions North, East, South and West. They are 5 metres tall and were newly built in April 2020.
Then we came across many buildings, but we didn’t go in to have a good look as we were unsure if we were allowed in. Hence we didn’t take any photos.
Beopwangru is the place where the king of dharma, Buddha resides. It is a pavilion, used for various religious services. In the hall, there are 3,300 small statues of Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of endless Compassion.
Daewoongjeon is the main Buddha hall which has three Buddha statues, Amitabha Buddha (on the right), Sakyamuni Buddha (at the centre) and Medicine Buddha (on the left), which was the same as the Jogyesa Temple.
Seonbuldang was built in 1941 and has a unique roof structure and on one side, there is a Maji Refectory where offering meals to the Buddha is made in a traditional way.
Another interesting building is the Panjeon, which was built in 1855 to preserve the wooden blocks of the 81 volumes of the Avatamsaka Sutra were carved. At present 3,503 wooden blocks on 13 Sutras are enshrined there.
The Bell Pavilion is for the four Dharma Instruments – a Dharma Bell, a Dharma Drum, a Wooden Fish, and a Cloud-Shaped Gong. They are struck three times a day, just 20 minutes before the early morning ceremony, 10 o’clock ceremony and evening ceremony. Monks strike the Dharma Bell to guide beings in hell to enlightenment and similarly, the Dharma Drum is for earth-bound beings, the Wooden Fish is for underwater beings, and the Cloud-Shaped Gong is for air-born beings.
Venerable Yeongam aspired peaceful unification of the two Koreas and promoted to building this 23-metre tall Maitreya Buddha statue. It took about 10,000 Buddhists of a four-fold community of this temple to participate in this project for ten years. It was completed in 1996, and the Mireuk Plaza became a popular place for people to pray at night. It looks very impressive.
As the tourist office closed on Monday, we were unable to get more information on this temple. If you are interested in learning more, then I would recommend visiting on other days. We all enjoyed walking through and admiring this impressive temple. It was very well taken care of and clean.
